Confused
by Now-You-Dont-Or-Do-You
Summary: Now Maria has found herself on an abandoned street in the middle of Brooklyn with The Winter Soldier holding a combat knife up to her neck. "You could have just called in Sam or Steve, they could've taken care of Barnes. But no, you had to go after him yourself!" She thought in annoyance. "All for some stupid crush." (One-Shot) (CA:TWS Spoilers)


_Whamp!_

A blinding pain overtook Maria's face with a white hot rage as the metal fist connected with her jaw, sending the woman sprawling across the ground.

"I don't know who that is!" The long-haired man snarled out in a frustrated tone as he began to approach Maria again, the blade of a knife suddenly glinting out of his fist.

Maria had barely regained her bearings again when the knife came slicing down at her face. Her sudden flinch at the motion saved her lips from being sliced up and she scrambled away from the man.

Then she struggled to her feet painfully again and faced the super-soldier straight on. "Yes you do! He was your best friend!" She hollered back him.

The man only answered with a growl before launching himself yet again at Maria and snatching at her arm to bring her down again.

Maria dodged away easily anticipating his attack and returned with a hard heel kick onto his back once behind him. This only served to infuriate him more and he swung around with a well-aimed kick into Maria's side, sending her to her knees this time.

_How did I even end up here?! _Maria struggled to fully understand her motives for coming after this man in the first place. She had only stayed on the thought of trying to reason with him after receiving the alert of his nearby presence at 3 in the morning. Her old SHIELD tablet had been reprogrammed now to alert her of Barnes's location in order to help Steve and Sam find him and try to deal with him. But this close find had stirred the need for herself to go find Barnes this time.

And now Maria found herself on an abandoned street in the middle of Brooklyn with The Winter Soldier holding a combat knife up to her neck. _You could have easily called in Steve or Sam. But no, you had to go after him yourself. Dumbass!_

"You know Steve! Since childhood!" She explained in a hoarse voice due to the strangle that Barnes had attempted only minutes ago. "You watched his back. Helped him every time he got into fights. It was annoying but you did it anyway, because you cared about him!" She continued through the pain in her throat anyway.

Quickly beginning to let out all of the childhood stories Steve had used to sooth her with in the darkness of his room. When he would hold her close in his arms after one of her nightmares. Maria missed those nights with a painful ache now every time she had a nightmare and found the spot beside her on the mattress cold and empty. _But you shouldn't be thinking that anymore. He's not yours anymore._

"You wasted your own ice cream cone once to smash it into another kids face when he had stolen Steve's ice cream."

"You would always help Steve's mom warm towels to place on Steve's forming bruises and welts after fights and beatings."

"You would always carry an extra inhaler with you for Steve in case his asthma acted up and he couldn't get to his own."

And as Maria spouted story after story, the grip on the knife at her neck wavered and trembled. She glanced up to see that Barnes was staring at her with a horribly confused stare.

"You have to stop this HYDRA mission thing, Barnes. It'll only bring pain to yourself and innocent people all around," She ended with an unsteady breath, "as well as Steve."

At this point Barnes had begun to stare off into a distant point, stuck in some sort of trance. Maria held her breath, hoping with everything that one of her stories could have jogged his memories. _Come on, I didn't just go through all of this to die. I came for Steve..._

The silence was suddenly broken by a distant car horn and Barnes was shaken out of his reverie and the grip on the knife tightened again, the tip pricking dangerously into her skin.

"Who are you?" Barnes growled into her ear, a wisp of uncertainty in his tone as he spoke.

"Maria Hill. A... Friend of Steve's." She answered with a hesitance. _Are we even friends at this point?! Not after what happened... Maybe acquaintances looking to stop The Winter Soldier..._

"Well you seem to know a lot about him. And Bucky," The knife disappeared then, leaving Maria to slump forward in relief and climb to her feet sorely to face Barnes, "So you're going to help me." He announced then, a determined and slightly unsure look in his eyes.

Maria quickly nodded her assent, wincing at the pain it caused. _For Steve...Right? Can I even trust this guy? As unstable as he is._

"We'll need to go off-grid if you want this to work," Maria replied carefully, "That means losing HYDRA."

Barnes nodded slowly as he put his knife away into his dark jacket. He had been on a mission, she could tell by his protective attire and the arsenal of weapons and explosives strapped to him.

"We'll just have to dig out the trackers in my arm." His response was so faint and unsure, Maria had to lean forward slightly to understand him. Then he motioned for her to lead the way and she quickly began to walk towards her car. And as she walked, Maria was already beginning to put together a plan for her disappearance to help bring Bucky Barnes back_. Though I might even die doing it._

"Might I ask why?" She started carefully once the two had settled themselves into the vehicle.

He hesitated, "Ever since D.C... I've been feeling, confused," He shook his head and rubbed at his eyes, "That Steve guy.. He messed with my head. I just need explanations, so I'm using you."

When he didn't say anything else, Maria nodded, turning on the car and planning with JARVIS to book plane tickets to one of her most secure safe houses. "And JARVIS, could you not tell anyone about this? Please?" She added after explaining her flight plans. "Yes of course Miss Hill." The AI quickly replied as Barnes gave Maria a narrowed, untrusting stare when she mentioned air travel. _What am I getting myself into?_

That's when she finally took in his features, no doubt he would be recognized anywhere... "Now if we're gonna get you off-grid safely, We're gonna have to cut that hair and hide that arm." She announced just as they arrived at her apartment complex.

And in about half an hour Maria had finished packing her bag full of her clothes and other needs as well as another bag full of clothes from the drawer she had reserved for Steve during his visits. She hoped they could fit Barnes, there was no one to wear the clothes anyway.

"Alright, off to Ireland." She breathed as The Winter Soldier gave the Captain America sweater she had tossed into his lap a perplexed look.

_**So this happened.-. I had just watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier for the second time and this one-shot came to mind. So I wrote it.**_

_**Maxine**_


End file.
